[Edition 76] BRISBANE, Tuesday The Make-A-Wish charity foundation has been thrown into turmoil by 17 year-old leukamia sufferer Matthew Burn’s wish that he be “painlessly killed”.

Matthew Burn’s wish that he be “painlessly killed” has fallen on deaf ears

[Edition 76] BRISBANE, Tuesday The Make-A-Wish charity foundation has been thrown into turmoil by 17 year-old leukamia sufferer Matthew Burn’s wish that he be “painlessly killed”.

Make-A-Wish spokerpeson Sandra Stephens expressed her surprise at the request. “Normally the kids who contact us want to meet their sporting hero, or ride a pony. We’ve never had anyone ask to be euthanazed before. I mean maybe if they’d wanted Greg Norman or someone to smother them with a pillow, we could have made some calls. But with Matthew we were a little in the lurch at first, and had no choice but to turn him down” said Stephens.

Upon having his initial wish to die denied, Matthew then made a series of new wishes. “After we declined the first request, he started talking about how it was his life-long dream to go over Niagra Falls in a barrel. We might have considered this in the past, but Matt’s deathwish made us suspicious. The boy’s dying wish to see the rebel-infested jungles of Colombia was also turned down.

“We finally agreed on a series of piano lessons, a gift we’ve given to several moribund youngsters in the past” said Stephens. “But the teacher stopped the course after the first lesson.”

“I’m always happy to help a dying kid fulfill his wish” said Mavis Bradshaw, 73. “But I’m not prepared to conduct lessons on a piano teetering off the edge of a hospital’s roof, while the student stands underneath it shouting ‘oblivion now!'”

Today Matthew finally made a wish that the organisation was able to grant. “I know he’s on the news all the time, but I guess I just never considered Philip Nitschke a celebrity before,” said Stephens.